Committee
European and External Relations Committee, 21 Dec 2004
21 Dec 2004 · S2 · European and External Relations Committee
Item of business
Convener's Report
I want to ask about inward visits.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
SNP
Agenda item 4 is my report, which contains three points. The first concerns a response from the Minister for Parliamentary Business to our request for more d...
Mr Raffan:
LD
Perhaps we could ask the minister's office to clarify what he means by"the possible creation of an EU Agency for linguistic diversity and language learning",...
Irene Oldfather:
Lab
I know that we are waiting on the outcome of the feasibility study that has been commissioned. My understanding was that the agency would have a wider remit,...
The Convener:
SNP
I will ask the clerks to clarify the issue with the Executive. When we get more detail, we will make it available to committee members.Do members have any ot...
Mr Home Robertson:
Lab
I want to take up an earlier point and return to a couple of issues in the pre and post-council report. I was struck by the paper's mention of the proposed d...
The Convener:
SNP
Sorry, have you gone back to a previous agenda item?
Mr Home Robertson:
Lab
I apologise, but I want to pick up on a point that is made in the pre and post-council report.
The Convener:
SNP
Are you referring to page 7 of paper EU/S2/04/22/1?
Mr Home Robertson:
Lab
Yes. Page 7 mentions the proposed directive on batteries and accumulators and the proposed regulation on registration, evaluation, authorisation and restrict...
Irene Oldfather:
Lab
I think that discussions are taking place with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on that issue. People are aware that we were caught short on the ...
The Convener:
SNP
Annex A states that we will seek further information from the Executive on its transposition plans on the batteries directive, but John Home Robertson's poin...
Mr Home Robertson:
Lab
Thank you.
Mr Raffan:
LD
I want to ask about inward visits.
The Convener:
SNP
Let us return to the convener's report. As I said, I will ask the clerks to pursue with Tom McCabe the point about the status of the language agency.The fina...
Mr Raffan:
LD
Perhaps the clerks can clarify the brief point that I want to make about inward visits. Like other members, I sometimes hear about such visits after they hav...
The Convener:
SNP
The process can seem a bit haphazard, so I will ask the clerks to discuss with the external liaison unit how that information flow can be improved. Of course...
Mr Raffan:
LD
It is always good to have a back-up from the clerks.
The Convener:
SNP
I am sure that that seamless flow is never interrupted. We will note Keith Raffan's point and come back to him on it.If members have no other points on my re...
Meeting continued in private until 15:33.